Metal containers are used for a large variety of consumer products including food containers, beverage containers, and aerosol product containers. For years, these containers have had a familiar shape and appearance. In large part, food and beverage containers are formed by a successive drawing process. In contrast, due to their length, aerosol cans are typically formed by welding or otherwise seaming two edges of a piece of sheet material to form a cylindrical can body that is attached to end caps. Or, in some cases, an aluminum slug is used to perform a deep drawing process to form an aerosol can. While sheet drawing presents a more economical method of forming, existing presses are not suitable for forming aerosol cans. The distances that the punch would have to travel in either drawing or ironing a container from a sheet of material make them impractical for such an application. Further, the use of such drawn blanks places extreme demand on the control of the material thickness, as cracking and tearing of the material is very likely to occur.
With that backdrop, container manufactures have looked away from using a sheet drawing process to form elongated containers, such as aerosol cans. They have relied on tried and true methods that provide cost certainty and do not require any investment in tooling.
Increasingly, marketing people are looking for ways to differentiate their products from others. A recent trend has developed to provide containers of different shapes and dimensions to create product identity. So far, in the beverage industry, while new various diameter containers are produced, these containers are still limited to the draw heights used for traditional containers. This trend is spreading beyond beverage containers as, consumers demand unique elongated containers that provide the volume necessary for aerosol products. Consequently, to meet the demands of the industry, a system for forming an elongated container from a sheet of material is needed.